How the BTC can resolve the burning issues
The Bangalore Turf Club,, the Karnataka Racehorse Owners’ Association and Karnataka Trainers Association can easily resolve the issues arising out of the legitimate demands of stable workers (syces) for implementation of Provident Fund and other statutory obligations. The issue has dragged on for several years, with the trainers association not wanting to take the responsibility and the club shying away from coming up with concrete measures.
There is a reserve fund of about Rs 8 crores with the KROA which was a fund created by the Bangalore Turf Club and the owners body in order to meet any contingency. The Provident Fund can be implemented with immediate effect like it has been done at Kolkata, Hyderabad and Mumbai by forming a society with members from all the bodies constituting the governing council. There is obviously some limitation as to how many years the trainers have to go back to pay the Provident Fund arrears. Quite a few of the trainers have retired and some of the horse owners are no longer alive. The situation can be salvaged by deducting certain percentage of stake money each season with a matching contribution from the club to create a large reserve pool to take care of all the requirements. All that is required is collective effort on the part of all concerned instead of shirking responsibility or passing the buck which has been the reason why no solution has been found.
There is no point in trainers justifying their stance that the PF Commissioner has declared them as agents when the actual fact is that they are the employers of syces and pay their monthly wages. Everybody wants to have a better quality of life and fights for their privileges. The trainers on their part are benefitted by increase in stakes, and also look for other incentives for winning a race. In short, they look for maximum efforts without extending the same to the people who make all the difference. When such is the case, why can’t they take care of the requirements of syces who are the backbone of racing. Without them, racing cannot take place and the trainers will be helpless. Unfortunately the syces are a neglected lot.
The turf club’s fear is that if they step forward to resolve the issue, they may have to take up a huge liability if syces are deemed as club employees. But this fear is grossly exaggerated because the club is not going to be directly involved in the payment of salaries and other benefits but only providing a channel for creation of a fund for meeting all contingencies. As it is the turf club is advancing Basic Training Fee which is a loan so that the trainers can pay the salaries of their employees and other commitments without any hitch even if there is delay in the payment from race horse owners. The turf club is earning enormous revenue and the burden on them to partially fund the money required is negligible. The club earns revenue from racing and without racing, they cannot exist. As such, they need to take a more pro-active stand so that these sort of problems don’t’ recur.
There was a meeting of various wings of racing along with about 30 odd members of the club on Monday. The club members have urged the Managing Committee to take all steps required to resolve the issue. This is a welcome development though one has to wait and see how the totally divided managing committee responds on Tuesday. The main players exuded confidence that a solution will be found and racing will go through over this weekend. One hopes that the solution is not on ad hoc basis. A permanent solution has to be found for this vexed problem.
There has been criticism that the club was not apologetic when announcing postponement of races. The club issued a bland statement saying that due to unavoidable circumstances the races have been postponed. There was no regret expressed for the inconvenience caused to scores of people who spent time and money to come for the event from India and abroad. There was also no sadness to the problems caused to the media who had made elaborate arrangements to give an extensive coverage to the event. The ET Now was to telecast the races live and enormous amount of money had been spent to fly in anchors and producers from abroad apart from hiring the equipment required for the purpose. The sponsors had spent huge money for the promotion of the mega affair and all their efforts went to waste. Some of the owners had flown in top international jockeys from abroad and they need to repeat the exercise all over again.
What was worse was that there was no expression of sadness at the turn of events by all the parties involved in the conduct of racing. Each one was trying to blame the other for the fracas. The best lacked conviction while the worst were full of passionate intensity if one were to borrow W B Yeats’ lines. We are not here to win an argument but to solve the problems and for this we need a meeting of minds. No one should be allowed to sabotage racing.
There is a reserve fund of about Rs 8 crores with the KROA which was a fund created by the Bangalore Turf Club and the owners body in order to meet any contingency. The Provident Fund can be implemented with immediate effect like it has been done at Kolkata, Hyderabad and Mumbai by forming a society with members from all the bodies constituting the governing council. There is obviously some limitation as to how many years the trainers have to go back to pay the Provident Fund arrears. Quite a few of the trainers have retired and some of the horse owners are no longer alive. The situation can be salvaged by deducting certain percentage of stake money each season with a matching contribution from the club to create a large reserve pool to take care of all the requirements. All that is required is collective effort on the part of all concerned instead of shirking responsibility or passing the buck which has been the reason why no solution has been found.
There is no point in trainers justifying their stance that the PF Commissioner has declared them as agents when the actual fact is that they are the employers of syces and pay their monthly wages. Everybody wants to have a better quality of life and fights for their privileges. The trainers on their part are benefitted by increase in stakes, and also look for other incentives for winning a race. In short, they look for maximum efforts without extending the same to the people who make all the difference. When such is the case, why can’t they take care of the requirements of syces who are the backbone of racing. Without them, racing cannot take place and the trainers will be helpless. Unfortunately the syces are a neglected lot.
The turf club’s fear is that if they step forward to resolve the issue, they may have to take up a huge liability if syces are deemed as club employees. But this fear is grossly exaggerated because the club is not going to be directly involved in the payment of salaries and other benefits but only providing a channel for creation of a fund for meeting all contingencies. As it is the turf club is advancing Basic Training Fee which is a loan so that the trainers can pay the salaries of their employees and other commitments without any hitch even if there is delay in the payment from race horse owners. The turf club is earning enormous revenue and the burden on them to partially fund the money required is negligible. The club earns revenue from racing and without racing, they cannot exist. As such, they need to take a more pro-active stand so that these sort of problems don’t’ recur.
There was a meeting of various wings of racing along with about 30 odd members of the club on Monday. The club members have urged the Managing Committee to take all steps required to resolve the issue. This is a welcome development though one has to wait and see how the totally divided managing committee responds on Tuesday. The main players exuded confidence that a solution will be found and racing will go through over this weekend. One hopes that the solution is not on ad hoc basis. A permanent solution has to be found for this vexed problem.
There has been criticism that the club was not apologetic when announcing postponement of races. The club issued a bland statement saying that due to unavoidable circumstances the races have been postponed. There was no regret expressed for the inconvenience caused to scores of people who spent time and money to come for the event from India and abroad. There was also no sadness to the problems caused to the media who had made elaborate arrangements to give an extensive coverage to the event. The ET Now was to telecast the races live and enormous amount of money had been spent to fly in anchors and producers from abroad apart from hiring the equipment required for the purpose. The sponsors had spent huge money for the promotion of the mega affair and all their efforts went to waste. Some of the owners had flown in top international jockeys from abroad and they need to repeat the exercise all over again.
What was worse was that there was no expression of sadness at the turn of events by all the parties involved in the conduct of racing. Each one was trying to blame the other for the fracas. The best lacked conviction while the worst were full of passionate intensity if one were to borrow W B Yeats’ lines. We are not here to win an argument but to solve the problems and for this we need a meeting of minds. No one should be allowed to sabotage racing.
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